The book concludes exactly how it has been prepared to conclude
(sorry, no surprise ending). Apple is in a free fall (increasing
sales numbers notwithstanding). Employees are leaving for Google
and other Valley startups as soon as their stocks vest, if they
can wait that long. Behind the scenes, morale is low and people
are scrambling to find that lost sense of purpose. There is no
room to believe that Apple could, in fact, have “its most
innovative years in front of it”, to use Steve Jobs’s
resignation words.

All of that said, I didn’t hate this book like a lot of other
Apple reviewers did. I believe it is good for folks like us who
often bathe ourselves in pro-Apple news and opinion to get an
alternate reality that perhaps the mainstream sees more often in
the 24-hour news/entertainment cycle. There were some interesting
bits and, if nothing else, Kane’s view of Apple is somehow both
cautionary and entertaining.

Weintraub’s is the least negative review I’ve seen — the only one that isn’t downright scathing.